Fish Tales
by Margolo Blu
Summary: Something is terrifying a small village, and Hellboy needs to find out exactly what it is. But he has to listen to a few fish tales first.


**Fish Tales**

As a boy Totaro read, heard, saw, it was too long ago to remember the exact details just the facts, that the human body was .9 percent salt…barely one percent salt. But how is one to know exactly how much blood is in the human body, did they drain the blood from a person, did they take a sample? He believed…these scientists, these people with their heads in the clouds, these blind, mechanically thoughtful people…only saw parts, thought of parts, of the big picture. For seventy-two years of his seventy-two years (he liked to say it that way, it brought…prestige during council meetings), he has been a fisherman, born in his father's fishing boat as his mother and aunt rowed to visit his paternal uncle on his fishing boat. He believed the salt in his blood was equal to that of the sea, he believed in his veins flowed the waters of the ocean, the waters of the ocean were his blood…part his body…in part his mother. Yes, Totaro was a proud man, standing bravely in his boat, stiff, despite the rough waters, appearing as if he was one with the waves. Totaro never felt fear in his mother ocean, in his life line; he knew her and read her like he read his own body. For seventy-two years Totaro never felt fear…seventy-two years…

It was near sunset when Totaro spotted the silver sheen of mackerel in the distance. He knew the silver splashes were mackerel, he recognized…read…their swimming patterns. It was an odd time of year for them to be out and about as well as an odd time of the day, but these could and probably were the last mackerel of the season. So he packed his net, a light dinner, and strolled out of his house down to the beach, down to the dock, and onto his boat and rowed out to where he saw the silvery fish. By now the sun had gone away and the only colors were the black of the land, the dark blue of the sky, and silver tipped blackness of the ocean. His lantern provided not only much needed light, but color as well. He threw the net and the bait out and sat back in his boat to wait, nibbling on his rice, and saving his single umeboshi, the salted, pickled plum, for last.

He pushed the umeboshi into his mouth and nearly choked on his chop sticks when boat began to rock. He coughed the umeboshi up and it plopped into the ocean. The boat stopped shaking, and Totaro leaned over to look at his ocean…it was still…the boat was still. Not a wave to be seen, not a wave to be heard clapping on the shore. Silent. He looked towards the shoreline…nothing. His bony fingers tapped on the edge of his boat as he gazed towards land. Then he by chance gazed down. He did not expect to see anything, but jumped when he did glance something, and jumped again, when he realized that there really was something there, underneath the black waters. Two perfect circles, the size of his fist, pale green in color—the shade of jade, solid—peered up through the darkness. He thought at first they were deep sea jelly fish, drawn upward to the shallow thanks to the calm sea and the light of his lantern. Totaro bent his lantern down to exam these jewels of the sea when the light of lantern caught on coin size grey lumps…almost like barnacles…the outline of a large mouth, wide enough to swallow a man.

A shapeless face—only the jade green eyes and bumps visible in the light…stared up, still…at Totaro. He was not aware of how large the figure was underneath him, it blended in perfectly well with the dark waters only then did he become aware of the claws…hands…fins peeking up from the water, gripping on the sides of the boat…holding it steady and still in the ocean. The boat felt as if it was ground…as if it was resting on some massive form. There were glimmers of silver in the water…teeth perhaps…and through the glimmers just a dark, black tunnel…darker than even the ocean itself.

Totaro screamed and fell back into his boat, pushing himself to the other side. The lantern fell the water, and its splash instigated a series of waves. The boat rocked violently back and forth, jostling the old man around. A section of boat, the center section, was broken off with a crack; black water began to pour into the boat. Totaro kicked violently at the water, as if to send it back into the ocean, but the water kept coming and soon the little fishing boat drifted down into the depths, just slowly pulled down away from him. The touch of his toes became lighter and lighter on its wood bottom until he felt nothing but the bottomless ocean underneath his feet. He could read the ocean…the water here was deep…

Something bumped into him, it was the missing piece of his boat, and he grabbed hold of it, pulling underneath his form. Waves crashed against him. He felt something rough…not fishlike…brush against his legs, against his bare feet. As he floated in the ocean he saw the jade green eyes and just the jade green eyes, circling him. Sometimes he saw one, meaning it was in profile, circling him, sometimes two, meaning it was watching him. Sometimes he saw them directly below him, meaning it was looking directly up at him. He could feel it…feel its waves…feel its rough skin…its fins…brush up against him…just ever so lightly…just against a small portion of his skin. Occasionally he saw just a small portion of it crest above the water, a distance away sometimes, and up close other times.

All the fear Totaro had not felt his entire life of sea was compromised that very night.

&&&

"_I'm telling you Hellboy-san_ it was an isonade that attacked my ship and stalked me all night," Totaro said theatrically, then downed his fifth saucer of sake that night. The old man did not fish anymore, unless you count fishing up saucers of sake and listeners at the local bar his new career. Hellboy was still on his first, holding the delicate white saucers in his right hand.

"An isonade?" Hellboy said. "You mean a demon shark, right?"

Totaro downed his sixth sake. His face as red as the paper lanterns that hung above the bar. "Oh yes! A horrid creature with three barbed tails and a body so massive you cannot see it! And I saw no body! Only barbs and its eyes!"

"Really?" Hellboy said, as Totaro ordered his seventh sake.

"It is not so far fetched as you may think Hellboy-san!" Totaro gestured with his sake cup. "Why this past decade this little fishing village was haunted by a nekomata, a two tailed demon cat with eyes like embers, that lapped up the fish oil from every lantern at every house every night for an entire month and danced on its hind legs on the support beams of the local shrine until a holy man sent it away. I tell you...hic...what! This village is no stranger to weird happenings! The faces of fallen warriors form on the backs of crabs here…hic."

"Yes," Hellboy said, sitting his saucer down. "I've read about that. But what makes you think that this is a sea monster…an isonade... something supernatural?"

"If you would have…hic…seen it, you would know something like that does not occur often in nature. Hic, I'm not the only one who thinks that something unnatural is lurking in our fishing waters…hic…why just ask the sushi chef…hic…can't remember his name for the life of me…but he saw something weird in waters too. Been effecting his food, just ask..hic..'em."

The old man slumped forward onto the bar, spilling the last few drops of his eighth sake. Hellboy paid the bartender for both their tabs and stalked back to his hotel. It seems like the old man hadn't had a good catch in a long time…

&&&

There was no one at the sushi bar when Hellboy entered, save for a young man in his twenties and a school age girl, sucking wishfully on chopsticks, sitting on a bar stool staring through the Plexiglas window at the candy-colorful sushi and sushi ingredients on display. The young man clumsily was attempting to make a layered omelet in a square frying pan, but the egg mixture kept spilling out as he attempted to cook and fold it. Hellboy sat down at the bar, right beside the girl, and looked through the glass, mocking the same amount of interest of the little girl, who seemed somewhat taken back at the red brute sitting right beside her. She looked at his expression, his purposely feigned interest in the sushi, and took the interest as genuine and Hellboy as harmless…at least to small children. The young man did not notice or at least care about either sitting at the bar.

Hellboy did not like sushi…he did not like fish at all. He has blown up, gutted, shot, burnt to an unrecognizable pile of cinders, mutilated, dissected, pulverized, pounded, disemboweled, enough mutant fish, fish monsters, supernatural fish monsters, ghost fish monsters, demon monsters, amphibian fishlike demon monsters, and one occasional a demon possessed three eyed betta called McSkittles, that he had no appetite for the creatures…baked or raw…especially raw. He would not even eat a fish stick unless it was buried (physically and flavor wise) under a mass of ketchup and tartar sauce. He saw grilled eel, squid, crab, discolored urchin roe, salmon, tuna, octopus…both the soft white meat of an octopus and the skinned off tentacles as two separate offerings of sushi…a plethora of sea critters wrapped up like Christmas presents was presented before him. Hellboy was not eager to open any…like the bad kid who feared opening gifts because he knew he was getting either coal or the dreaded tube socks.

"So…what would you suggest?" Hellboy asked the little girl. She giggled, slapping her hands onto her face, then pointed to some somewhat misshapen sushi rolls…Kappamaki, a cucumber roll…with no fish, named after an amphibian demon fish monster…but contained no fish!

"Hello? Hello?" Hellboy said, tapping a stone finger on the glass. "I'll take a kappamaki."

The young man ungracefully placed the kappamaki onto a black plastic tray with soy sauce packets, a dab of green wasabi, and a rose of pickled gingered. Hellboy pushed the tray to the young girl who happily dug into the sushi. Hellboy passed the money over to the young man, covering it as the man reached for it.

"I heard you saw something in ocean," Hellboy said.

The man looked at him.

"BPRD sent me here to take care of it," Hellboy said. He tapped at the gun at his side and smiled. "So _what exactly did you see _out there? Was it animal? Supernatural? Man made?"

The young man looked around. He glanced down at the massive gun at Hellboy's side. Then at the tiled floor, and slowly began to turn around, like a zombie, clomping back to his burning eggs, scrambled like brains, leaving Hellboy's money laying on the counter. Hellboy tapped his stone fingers on the top of the Plexiglas.

"He saw a sea serpent," the girl in a high pitched tone exclaimed, swinging her feet. The man looked at the little girl, then at Hellboy. The cat…er...fish was out of the bag. She quickly blurted, to save herself, "Ittriedtoeathim!"

The man, jostled out of his stupor, turned on his heels to finally face Hellboy. The little girl shoved a roll into her mouth and hid her face, trying to appear as small as possible on the stool.

"I don't know what I saw," the man answered, scraping the eggs into the garbage can. He set the skillet onto a burner, which he had forgotten to turn off, and it began to sizzle and smoke. "I was collecting urchins along the cove as I do sometimes…

&&&

Yoshi was not a fisherman, he only fished for sales at the local, booming fish market, but he did collect his own urchins when the fish market did not offer the best quality. It was one of those days, it was a beautiful, sunny day, the ocean was as clear as glass, and Yoshi was able to find and buy the best quality fish, except for urchin. Of course such a wonderful day would have a catch, but it was a small, insignificant catch. The ocean was warm, the waters clean, and the waves lapped at his feet like an eager puppy, ready to please him, or offer him what it had dragged in. Yoshi swam over to the rocky shoreline where the urchin…the best urchin…hid.

Today was an exception to that rule…not a bad exception but a good exception. The best of the best urchin lurked around the stones. None were smaller than a softball. Yoshi was nearly finished filling his sack with the prickly delights when something struck him in the center of his back, with such force he could feel it through his wet suit. It was like a good open handed slap. He turned a fish, a sea bass, floundered about, after nearly knocking itself out. Yoshi had to laugh, bubbles bursting from his mask, at the fish, flopping around in the water. Finally coming to its senses, it darted away, into one of the many stone crevasses.

With the silly fish no longer blocking his view, Yoshi became aware of some black mass in the distance. At first he thought it was a dolphin…but it was too dark…then he thought it was a pilot whale…but its movements…were awkward…it moved like a tadpole…no, it moved like a dragon, swirling…and then he realized it was no pilot whale…no whale at all…it was far too large. Then he saw the eyes…no mouth to be seen yet…but two large green eyes…solid…alien. The black mass was moving towards him. It seemed a distance away…with an endless, featureless ocean as its backdrop. It was the only thing to be seen, it seemed gigantic, looming like a thundercloud. Then he realized it was closer than he originally thought. Yoshi kicked towards the surface, the still ocean felt like gelatin, it gripped him from his knees down. He broke the surface and the form was upon him.

The waters of the ocean's surface were shaky; he could only see the black mass of the serpent, only a foot away from his body. He could just barely make out the greenness of the eyes…he realized in horror that it was the head that was the closest body part. He kicked and splashed to the shoreline. The massive head bumped against him…each time he was only bumping the corner of its jaw or head and it would turn and grab him in its jaws…each bump gave him a breath of hope, then the blow of fear as the next time the monster could strike him. The water broke beside him; he saw a coil of blackness. Yoshi cried out, choking on the seawater. He nearly urinated himself when his feet caught on something, and it became hard for him to move, scrapping and hurting his feet, but then he realized it was the beach, the sands gripping his feet. Yoshi pulled himself onto the land and collapsed.

For two hours, terrified, petrified, and unable to feel anything (his body, the sand, the water, the air, the heat of the sun, the prick of the urchins) but fear, he watched the black mass, knowing it could pull itself onto the land and devour him. For two hours it swam, loomed, about his vision, just a massive black form. For two hours. For two hours it watched him.

&&&

"That..._that thing_…had to be blind or have some eye problem other wise it would have grabbed me," Yoshi said.

"So this thing…you're suggesting it's a sea serpent?" Hellboy said.

"Well, yeah…it couldn't be anything else. Sharks and dolphins and fish don't swim like that," Yoshi said. "At least I don't think they do—but it wasn't something that normally occurs in this ocean…I swear! I wasn't drunk, I wasn't high, and I definitely wasn't seeing things."

"I understand I understand, I'm not telling you anything, you just tell me everything," Hellboy said.

"That is everything," Yoshi said. "I didn't get a real good look at it, but this woman…Mai…she saw it, up close and personal, in the headlights of her car. She could give you a real good description of it."

"Thanks," Hellboy said. Yoshi turned around to go back to the kitchen. "Hey…"

Yoshi turned.

"I have a favor to ask of you, eggs, scrambled," he said. "And no fish!"

&&&

Mai was a somewhat somber looking woman in her early thirties; she was a primary school teacher…which Hellboy was quite thankful to hear. Frankly, all he wanted was a good lead so he could get the hell out there and head back to the BPRD. The situation he was currently in is what would qualify as an "Untold story of the BPRD". No, it was not some near apocalyptic, reality bending, the secret of the universe being revealed story, it was not some incident in which the BPRD was bested story…no…it was an incident where there was no incident…something not really worth telling…a common occurrence in the BPRD. Everyone hears and asks for and knows the stories about Bigfoot, vampires, frog demons, ancients deities…everyone knows those…but what they don't know is that the BPRD is not always fighting werewolves in London or trailing thunder birds across the west with every call. Not every call was a call to something of supernatural origin. Sometimes (often) it was just an old drunk…or some hormonally pumped teenage…or some senile god fearing elderly woman…seeing something…when really it was nothing. They happened so often, were so uninteresting, the tales simply went untold…not even considered water cooler fodder.

Mai tapped her fingers on her tea cup. She seemed more irked than terrified, and did not seem to be interested in burying her sorrows in a cup of tea. Hellboy tapped his pen on his tablet. Her fluffy white cat mewed and pounced up onto Hellboy's lap. It licked its chops, its fur stained with fish oil and breath smelling like leftover fried fish and fish skin. Hellboy loves cats…but not their diets. But he petted the cat anyway.

"We'll make this quick…what did you see on the road?" Hellboy asked.

"I didn't see it _on_ the road," Mai answered. "I was driving home from a meeting, it was late at night…"

&&&

Mai's only companion for the night was a thick stack of reports sitting on the passenger side seat. She only had five out of thirty-two teacher-parent conferences done, she would have had at least nine tonight, but some parents decided to call off and reschedule which meant more late nights, more days spent from home. Despite parents calling off, Mai did not leave earlier…no…either the parents tonight were too friendly or too combative. Knowing her luck, Rem was probably starved and pawed through the garbage again. Mai had not eaten since lunch, and the only sustenance she had was a cold cup of coffee that had been sitting in her car all day since morning. Worse yet, construction detoured her down a country road enclosed by a thick, ancient copse of trees that she hated since she was just a little girl. No matter the weather, hot or dry or freezing cold, the woods always remained wet, cold, and empty, tonight was no exception to the rule.

The light of houses could not be seen here…there was not even a star in the sky…the only light was that of her headlights…she was the only navigating this black mass, her lights cutting through the shadows to reveal the road head. Darkness would quickly gulp up the road behind her. So she was utterly surrounded by this darkness.

She was in the center of the small woods, driving down the only straight part of the road. Tangled bushes blocked any view she had into the woods…as if she wished to look into the empty woods. Her lights caught on something in the distance…a single reflector set up along side the road to warn people of the curve up ahead. Suddenly the reflector became reflectors. Her headlights ate the shadows around the reflectors…the shadows gave away to a bulbous head, a black mass…shoulders…arms…the rest of it was hidden in the tangled bushes…soon the shadow tinged skin took on color…blue…light grey. It was just a flash.

It was only five seconds. The thing…the thing…it didn't move…didn't lurch for the car…it just stood there along side the road. Mai drove passed it…it was only five seconds…she knew…or thought…it may have turned its head to look into her car as she drove passed, but she did not…would not…look over. It was only six inches away from her moving car…from her window. She could have glanced over and saw it, but she didn't. Fear kept her from looking over, and fear from what she didn't see, didn't try to see, kept her going.

Mai hit the gas, and got home with such haste and just in time to scare Rem from digging through the garbage.

&&&

"So what was it?" Hellboy asked.

"A kappa," Mai said, petting Rem.

"Kappa?"

"Yes," Mai answered. "They say those woods are haunted, and there used to be a pond there, back in the 1920s or 1930s. Little children drowned all the time in it, they would be miles away from the pond, miles away from home, and just disappear, only to show up in the pond. A kappa was responsible they said, and they filled the pond with limestone and sand. The land is always cold there, and wet, and as a kid someone told me if you stand at the edge of the filled in pond during a full moon, the hands of all the drowned children would reach up from soil towards the moonlight, as if they were floundering in water. We have had a wet year, perhaps the pond, hidden deep in those woods came back, seeping through the soil, and kappa came back with it."

"Can you describe it?" Hellboy asked.

"I can't give you a good description, I just drove past it, it was crouching along side the road, in the bushes, just watching, waiting. It had a head, shoulders, arms. I don't know about its lower body, it may have been green or blue or grey, I couldn't tell what the hell it was, personally I don't want to think about it. The only thing that made me talk about it were the students in my class were talking about it…they saw something at the basketball court and won't play there anymore…"

"Well thank you Mai," Hellboy said, putting the pen in his pocket and placing the tablet under his arm. He gave Rem one final pet and left. He had children to speak with tomorrow. Then he was going to Tokyo…and getting a cheeseburger and vending machine pamcakes.

&&&

Mai was not lying when she said the children would not play on the basketball court, located in the local playground which was located on the top of a cliff. The basketball court was located at the very edge of the playground, at the cliff edge. It was surrounded by rusting chain linked fence, and beyond the fence, a sudden drop into the ocean. The children…all the children…were sitting on jungle gym staring at the basketball court. It was like that damn scene from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. He recognized the little girl from the sushi shop, kicking her feet with a box of fish shaped cookies tucked into her lap.

Hellboy cleared his throat then crouched down. "Hi, I'm Hellboy and I'm here to take care of whatever you saw. Your teacher told me you saw something."

It was like throwing a stone in a hen house. A cacophony of voices rose up immediately…all saying the same thing. Children flew off the jungle gym like birds, while three preteen boys, weakly bounced a basketball between them. One boy remained clinging to the jungle gym. Fingers pointed all in the same direction, shaking violently.

"It was on the cliff!"

"I saw on the cliff right over there."

"On the cliff!"

"Right there!"

"One at a time!" Hellboy said, then paused, knowing it was useless. "QUIET DOWN! Okay, so it was over on the cliff?"

"Yes! Yes!"

"Okay. What was it doing?"

Once again, a chorus of voices rose. Hellboy's ears crackled

"Okay…it was sitting there, on the ledge?"

"It was clinging like a frog…" a little boy piped up.

"No like a salamander," a little girl corrected.

"So did it look like a salamander or a frog?" Hellboy inferred.

The children answered all at once, "A MERMAID!"

"But not a pretty one," a little girl answered, stroking the wildly colored hair of some doll. "It was big, black and ugly."

"No, it was blue!" a little boy stomped his foot.

"GREEN!" a little boy shoved.

"It was black. You're stupid."

Hellboy sighed as the children fought among themselves. He took notice of the little boy sitting on the jungle gym kicking his feet. He turned to the little girl he met at the sushi bar…she was the only one not fighting…next to the three preteens standing a short distance away from the jungle gym, ignoring Hellboy and the young children and the basketball court, and looking longingly at the latter.

"It ate his dog," she answered matter-of-fact. "The serpent ate his dog."

"It was a mermaid!" someone exclaimed.

"It was a sea serpent!" the little girl exclaimed and joined in the shouting melee.

Hellboy approached the little boy and sat down beside him.

"That big bad monster eat your dog?" he said.

The little boy, his cheeks plump from pouting, nodded.

"A monster didn't eat his dog," one of the preteens said. "Ichi is my little brother. His dog drowned, or was eaten by a shark. The dumb idiot is always playing fetch at the shore line. He throws a stick out into the water, and Momo, our dog, swims out to get it. Our parents tell him not to do that. Momo isn't a big dog; he is not a strong swimmer, but Ichi does it anyway, and what happened? Momo was swept out to sea. If he didn't drown, a shark got him. Ichi came home crying and told us that a monster ate his dog."

"So, there is no monster?" Hellboy asked.

"Ah, yeah," the boy snapped bouncing the ball.

"So why aren't you shooting hoops with your buddies over there?" Hellboy asked.

"Um…coz the fence is rusty and we're not allowed to play until it's fixed," the boy answered. With Hellboy's remark, they left, going to another far corner of the playground, superficially bouncing the ball between them, glancing over occasionally. Hellboy began to talk to the heartbroken boy again.

"So where did this happened?" Hellboy asked.

"There's a cave down at the shore. I've seen it, when the tide's out, you can see it, and that's where the monster lives," he answered.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am sure. Everyone says it lives there, I've seen it before," he said. "It hides in there until the tide comes in."

"Thanks," Hellboy said, patting the little boy on the back. "I'll take care of this big bad monster for ya…not just for you but for Momo, okay?"

The little boy smiled.

As Hellboy left, a gaggle of school children crowded together looking at the cliffs, while the preteens stayed far, far away.

&&&

Sure enough when the tide went out Hellboy could see the indentation in the cliff side of a cave along the water's edge. With a rope around a shoulder, a massive, powerful flashlight in the other, a cigar clamped between his teeth, Hellboy navigated over the rough, shell strewn rocks also revealed by the tide.

"If I had human feet this would suck," Hellboy said, and not a second later he slid into a pool of water. With a hiss his cigar died and disintegrated in the saltwater. "DAMN!"

Now he smelt like wet cigar butts and fish.

Hellboy hobbled to the cave, sliding on the rocks, but not falling into the many pools of water. He came to the dark mouth of the cave. He poked his head in.

"HELLO?"

Hello…

Hello…

Wow, it was deep. He shined the light into the cave; there was about a thirty something foot drop onto the floor of the cave. He could have jumped down, but what nasties or ickies that could be lurking or decaying on the floor of the cave kept him from doing so. Carefully he began to scale downward, moving across the wall in search of nooks and crannies. Most of the nooks and crannies were filled with slimy or bubbly slimy things that popped with his fingers touched them. The finger of his left hand pressed into something sharp. Hellboy pulled his hand out, a bead of red blood formed on his fingertip. Whatever was in that nook did not feel like a shell or a crab or glass. He reached, carefully, and removed a shark's tooth…a fresh shark's tooth…big fresh shark's tooth.

"Well I'll be damned," Hellboy said examining it.

Bark! Bark! Bark!

"Whoa!"

Hellboy fell backwards…and landed in a cushiony mass of rotting kelp. It was like landing in shampoo…only it didn't smell as good.

"Oh god," Hellboy exclaimed, shaking the black mass from his fingers. A little dog…a little white dog…with a few peach sized and peach colored spots licked at his face, pulling a dead crab from his hair. The rest of the dog probably was white, it but was stained a brown color. Hellboy scooped the little dog up in his right hand and held him up…bad smelling…but fine. "Well hello there Momo…"

Something scraped along the stony ground. There was heavy breath, air being sucked into a massive mouth…it sounded like a cliché hunchbacked mad scientist assistant. Hellboy looked up and saw the green eyes…massive green eyes the size of grapefruits. He rolled over, tucking Momo into him. Now facing the creature, Hellboy aimed his gun…err…looks like he lost his gun…aimed the dog…at the monster.

Momo happily barked and wagged its tale.

The creature just stood there, black human arms tucked against its stomach. It just looked at him. The only offense the creature appeared to be taking was its odor…it smelt horrible. Hellboy set Momo down and the little dog rushed over to the creature, begging at its feet. The creature patted the dog's head, rather shakily.

The creature was huge, easily towering two feet over Hellboy. The body was human shaped, though slightly hunched over. It had arms with finned hands, and legs with large finned feet. The skin on top was a dark grey while its bottom skin was an iridescent white, shining blue and green in Hellboy's flashlight. A massive tail…a shark tail…drifted into the shadows. The creature…the shark man…looked at him. It did not want to move; even petting the dog appeared to hurt it. Then Hellboy saw the rope…the fishing line…it was wrapped around the creature's tail, wrapped around its torso, around its neck. The flesh was swollen and bleeding. That must have been stuck in there for weeks...it must have been in real pain. With those finned hands it could not possibly untangle itself...it needed fingers for that job.

"Okay Nemo…I'm gonna help you…" Hellboy said approaching the creature. "Don't try and bite my head off, all right?"

The creature grinned. That mouth was wide enough to swallow a person.

It did not move. Pulling a knife from his coat pocket, Hellboy slashed a length of rope from around the creature's tail he removed about a foot and a half length of the rope before he had to cut the rope again. Bit by bit, he slowly removed sections of rope, tossing the pieces into a stinking pile. Finally the last bit was removed with a nasty hook. Hellboy cut the hook off of the rope and stuck it into his pocket.

"All right Nemo, you're cured," Hellboy said, backing off. "Don't be scaring the village people anymore okay? I'm gonna go."

He picked up Momo. "And I'm taking the dog with me."

Just as Hellboy prepared to leave, the creature grabbed hold of his arm, and pulled his right arm towards it, pulling it towards its face. In some odd affectionate moment, the creature pressed Hellboy's hand against the side of its face, underneath its eye.

Plunk…

Plunk…

Plunk…

Plunk…

Plunk…

It pulled away, disappearing into the confines of the cave. Five stones were nestled in Hellboy's fist.

"Um…you're welcome…" Hellboy said to the shadows. Only the fin of the shark man's tail stuck out of the shadows.

Hellboy quickly scaled…as quickly as you could with a squirming terrier under one arm…up the walls. The smell of the cave still stuck to him, but at least there was light. He crossed the stones before setting Momo down onto the beach. He removed a stone from his pocket.

"What the hell?" he said, holding a ruby up. "Wow…now only if the BPRD would pay me like that."

&&&

"So what happened?" a member of the council asked. "Was there a creature? Did you kill it? Does it mean harm to us?"

"Here you go," Hellboy said, handing over the five large precious stones to that member of the village council. The man paused. Hellboy pointed at the stones. "If I know my gemstones…and let me tell you…I know my gemstones…that's about half a million right there, a gift from the sea to the village."

"What?" the man said.

Hellboy put a hand on the man's shoulder. "I have all the documents written up, that money belongs to the village. I work with governments…not just my government. Spend it well, I'm gonna say start buying your fish from other places for a few years or maybe start eating some chicken or beef or pork…just for a few years you know."

"Why is that?" the council member asked.

Hellboy laughed walked away, flipping the shark's tooth in his hand like a gambling coin. "Some weren't meant to be told."

_Once upon a time there lived a king who was greatly in love with a princess. During his travels he came to a village where the villagers were frightened by a horrible shark man…a samebito…living in a cave. They wanted him to slay the awful creature. The king came into the cave and found the samebito just sitting there. Instead of slaying it, he began to talk to it and found it quite friendly and charming. He offered it to live with him which it gratefully accepted. Upon returning home, the king found that the father of the princess he hoped to marry would not offer her to anyone, unless they paid an incredible amount for her. Despite his treasures, the king did not have that kind of money. He became sad, then became very sick...very very sick. He became so sick that he nearly died, with the samebito watching over him. Saddened by his friend's sickness, the samebito cried and cried, crying gemstones instead of tears, filling up the king's room. The king became quite happy and instantly was cured from his deathbed. So he married his princess and they and the samebito lived happily ever after. _


End file.
